18/8.] MR. A. BOUCARD ON BIRDS FROM COSTA RICA. 41 



departure I did uot lose a single day, and often I had no repose 

 from morning till night. I could easily have obtained a larger 

 number of specimens ; but I did not collect very well-known and 

 common birds which were already well represented in my collection. 



I consider Costa Rica one of the worst places for making col- 

 lections, in consequence of the difficulty of transport, the bad 

 roads, and the great expense which these deficiencies occasion. 

 You must carry every thing with you, live and sleep as you can and 

 where you can, sometimes in the most miserable huts, sometimes in 

 the forest. 



At first I was not able to find help at any price. A few hunters, 

 willing to work for me at high pay, made such bad skins that I 

 was obliged to dismiss them. 



Others to whom I offered good prices for birds in the flesh never 

 came again after I gave them powder and shot. At last, a little 

 before my departure, I met with two good hunters, whom I 

 employed a few days, and did very well with them ; but it was 

 rather too late, the time of my departure having arrived, and the 

 best season for birds being over. 



The classification which I have followed in the following list is 

 that of my ' Catalogus Avium.' 



Ordo Crypturi. 

 Family Tinamid^e. 



1. Nothocercus bonapartii, Gray. 

 Tinamus frantzii, Lawr. 



Native name "Gallina del monte." Only one specimen procured, 

 in May 1877, at Rio Navarro, at the base of the Candelaria Moun- 

 tains, twelve miles from San Jose. 



This seems to be a rare species ; the typical specimen of T.frantzii, 

 Lawr., was collected at Cervantes by J. Zeledon. Cervantes is not 

 far from Rio Navarro. 



Like all Tinamidae, it is found in the dense parts of the forest, 

 where it feeds on insects and seeds. They can be easily detected by 

 the noise they make when scratching the ground in search of food. 

 They go in pairs, repeatedly calling one another. When fearing 

 danger they run with much rapidity. 



2. Crypttjrtjs botjcardi, Scl. 



The type of this species was from Mexico, and not from Guate- 

 mala as stated in Gray's 'Hand-list of Birds.' As well as I can 

 remember, the first specimen (the type of this species) was obtained 

 by me at Playa Vicente, a small village up the river Papaloapam, 

 the mouth of which is at Alvarado, on the Atlantic, between Vera 

 Cruz and Minatitlan. 



As far as I know, all specimens of this bird have been obtained 

 in the tropical forests a few hundred feet above the sea-level ; but 

 it is an interesting fact that this species has been obtained also in 

 Guatemala and Costa Rica. 



